Huntington Hospital has evolved from its humble beginnings over a century ago to become a beacon of advanced healthcare. President, Dr. Nick Fitterman, discusses the hospital’s specialized services while embracing education through its partnership with Northwell Health.
A HERITAGE OF HEALING AND PIONEERING CARE
In 1916, the town of Huntington, New York was undergoing a significant transformation from a small farming community to a burgeoning urban area.
As the population expanded and economic growth advanced, new residents arrived seeking opportunities, which prompted the construction of a new hospital to provide essential healthcare services.
In response to the demand, Huntington Hospital was founded by Cornelia Prime, who recognized the community’s urgent need for medical care and generously donated the land and resources necessary to begin building.
As a visionary philanthropist who played a crucial role in addressing community needs, she contributed not only financial support but also a strong commitment to improving local healthcare infrastructure.
At a time when women had limited rights, Prime’s leadership solidified her status as a trailblazer in Huntington.
Today, Prime’s legacy is recognized in the town with streets renamed in her honor and various community events celebrating her impact on the town, ensuring her remarkable support is never forgotten.
“Over the last 110 years, Huntington Hospital has established itself as a trusted partner in the community it serves, and we have done so by providing high-quality care and focusing on the needs of the community,” introduces Dr. Nick Fitterman, President.
“Becoming part of Northwell Health (Northwell), a large integrated health system, afforded us even more opportunity to grow and advance care,” he continues.
Northwell’s Center for Learning and Innovation (CLI) and Institute for Nursing (IFN) provide Huntington Hospital employees with unlimited access to ongoing education.
By sharing best practices throughout the system, the hospital can both contribute to and benefit from the collective knowledge of thousands of team members.
“We have a culture of always wanting to do better tomorrow than we did today. Never becoming complacent from past or current successes keeps all our partners eager to learn, innovate, and evolve,” Dr. Nick highlights.
TAILORED EXCELLENCE
While a typical community hospital will attempt to provide a wide range of services for everyone, Huntington Hospital has the advantage of being part of an integrated system with specialty, tertiary, and quaternary hospitals.
These facilities are all accessible within minutes via robust transfer services, including ambulances, helicopters, and planes.
This allows the hospital to focus on the most prevalent needs of its community and develop programs of excellence, such as those for cardiovascular disease.
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“We were one of the first cath labs in New York State without on-site open-heart back-up.
Over 30 years later, we still have a very active lab that was recently refreshed with two rooms capable of doing all the advanced procedures one expects in such a lab. Therefore, we can treat any acute or chronic heart disease that does not require open-heart surgery,” informs Dr. Fitterman.
“Moreover, we included the CoroFlow Cardiovascular System in both labs to complement our women’s health program as it can diagnose microvascular angina, which predominantly impacts women, and no such lab existed in our area.”
The hospital also refreshed its very active electrophysiology (EP) lab and is planning to revise a second one.
This addresses the changing landscape of arrhythmia treatments – notably atrial fibrillation and the increasing role of ablation as a primary therapeutic option.
“Huntington Hospital also supports an aging community that needs the expansion of two additional programs – cancer treatment and orthopedics, including spine care,” Dr. Fitterman outlines.
“We have a disease-specific Advanced Certification in Spine Surgery from the Joint Commission and a clinically and academically active orthopedic residency program, which published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals last year.”
This type of academic currency helps the hospital attract a higher caliber of learners and attendings, further elevating the care provided.
Along with its orthopedic residency program, Huntington Hospital has podiatric surgery and pharmacy residency programs, exemplifying the hospital’s commitment to medical education.
“We will be developing our own internal medicine program in 2027 to help meet the need for more primary care in the area we serve and to create a pipeline of talent for future recruitment,” Dr. Fitterman adds.
The hospital also has high-quality programs meeting the needs of the most common cancers in the region – lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal.
“We participate in clinical studies, cancer genetics, and collaborate with the world-renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This year, we have introduced the most advanced linear accelerator for cancer treatments called the Varian Ethos™.”
“Being part of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health aligns us with other systemwide collaborations to advance the care of women”
Dr. Nick Fitterman, President, Huntington Hospital
ELEVATING WOMEN’S HEALTH
Women’s health is often neglected in healthcare, and Huntington Hospital has addressed this by establishing a women’s health center nearby its main campus.
Women can receive comprehensive care for all their primary and subspecialty needs at the center, which complements the hospital’s mother-and-baby unit with beautiful suites for couples and their newborns.
“We are a center of excellence for minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, and our expert surgeons train others in these techniques,” Dr. Fitterman imparts.
Furthermore, Huntington Hospital is expanding its labor and delivery suite to accommodate an increasing number of deliveries.
“We will continue to grow our laborist and neonatal intensive care programs. We are a site that trains and educates future obstetricians and gynecologists, thereby creating a pipeline of talent.
“Being part of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health aligns us with other systemwide collaborations to advance the care of women,” he elaborates.
Every unit and department has an alignment board visibly posted as a reminder of Huntington Hospital’s mission, vision, and values (MVVs) and strategic objectives.
The purpose is to ensure that all 2,100 team members and partners understand how every task they perform aligns with the greater mission.
“MVVs help instill a sense of purpose – this is vital in all professions but especially healthcare, which is personal, people-dependent, and a privilege to be part of.
“Our mission statement – ‘The right care, every touch, every time’ – is a credo we all model and live by. That is what helps drive accolades, such as the 5-star rating by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, more than any dashboard metrics,” Dr. Fitterman earnestly expresses.
“Our mission statement – ‘The right care, every touch, every time’ – is a credo we all model and live by”
Dr. Nick Fitterman, President, Huntington Hospital
ENHANCING CARE THROUGH STRATEGIC SPECIALIZATION
There has been significant activity at Huntington Hospital recently with the refurbishment of an interventional radiology (IR) suite.
This is part of a broader strategy to address cancer by relocating diagnostic and therapeutic procedures traditionally performed in operating rooms to IR suites and support the expansion of its growing vascular surgery program.
The hospital has also opened a state-of-the-art wound care center, which includes two hyperbaric oxygen chambers, and plans to introduce a thrombectomy program to become a thrombectomy stroke center.
“As a designated primary stroke center, we are seeing more patients with acute ischemic stroke becoming candidates for thrombectomy; we feel our community needs this service closer to home,” emphasizes Dr. Fitterman.
Equally, there are plans to advance Huntington Hospital’s Level 3 trauma designation to Level 2, which it will formally achieve by adding just a few additional on-call services.
The needs of the community drive the decision to specialize in specific programs over others. If there is a need the hospital cannot meet for any reason, such as not having enough high-quality surgeons or specialists for a particular disease, then it partners with sister hospitals across Northwell.
“We would rather transfer to a program of excellence, if we don’t have one, than build a program of mediocrity,” Dr. Fitterman declares.
EMPOWERING THE FUTURE
Huntington Hospital is proudly committed to investing in the growth and development of current and future leaders as well as frontline staff.
“In addition to CLI and IFN, we collaborate with top-notch programs at Harvard University, Cornell University, and The Health Management Academy,” Dr. Fitterman reports.
“These complement the robust physician administrative leadership programs at Northwell. These are essentially mini-MBA programs and are as impactful as any I’ve encountered elsewhere.”
This emphasis on comprehensive training and leadership reflects Northwell’s commitment to innovation in patient care.
For instance, the hospital added navigational bronchoscopy, which has expedited the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
It allows for much quicker and safer sampling of pulmonary nodules suspected of being cancer, therefore providing better patient outcomes.
In addition to these advancements, Huntington Hospital will be improving its cancer campus with the opening of the Wisser Family Cancer Center, part of the Northwell Cancer Institute.
“When complete, we will have medical, surgical, and radiation oncology on one site.
“This will be coupled with infusion bays, a genetics program, a survivorship center, and imaging, all on a single campus – it will transform cancer care in our community,” concludes Dr. Fitterman.
